Moe Lane

The Corner (via Instapundit):

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Luke Russert just said that one member who voted for the legislation last night told him (this may be a slight paraphrase): I’m glad I don’t have to go back to my district and talk about this again.

Heh.
Ha.
Ha-hah.
Ha-ha-ha.
Ha-ha-hah-hAH!
HAHA-HA-HA-HA-HAAH!
MWBHWAH-HA-HAH-HA-HAHH!!!!!

Before we did them.

OK, time to start rolling this monstrosity of a health care soon-to-be back… what’s that I’m being told? It can’t be done? We’re stuck with it forever? Can’t cut entitlements in this country, at all, at all? Well, that’s very interesting: being told that we can’t do something, that is. Shall I tell you some of the other things that I’ve been told, over the last year and a half? (more…)

I think that it’s safe to say that Tom Garcia is unhappy about Suzanne Kosmas licking the hand that’s beating their district:

…Normally, I’d quibble about the ‘Marxist’ thing, mostly because the people staffing this administration aren’t smart enough to be Marxists (not a compliment: Marxism is intellectualism for stupid people*), but we’ll forgive the hyperbole this one time. After all, that fact that the President used FL-24’s space job situation as a flail with which to bring back safely into line a too-’independent’ Congresswoman must stick in the man’s craw.

Anyway: donations here. Don’t get mad; get even.

Moe Lane

PS: Note that Garcia called Kosmas’ flip a day before it happened.

*How hard is it to farm? I mean, illiterate Copper-age Sumerians who plowed with sticks managed it! And yet those people couldn’t manage to keep an agricultural system running to save their lives. Often literally.

Crossposted to RedState.

Interesting what people can take from a picture. Case in point:

When Glenn put up a post using it, he focused on the brutal elegance of that sign message:”You vote for Obamacare, we vote for your opponent.“  Which, by the way: we will.  But what I took away from it was primarily the guy with the camera.

I’ve written this before, and now I’ll write it again: never go to a protest or political event without video recording equipment.  I usually recommend a Flip, but I discovered at CPAC that my Canon PowerShot SD1200IS is actually a perfectly suitable emergency video camera in its own right.  Or you can just use your cell phone.  Whatever it is, have something that you can use when circumstances warrant. Our opponents have not yet internalized the idea that every action and every word that they utter for the rest of their lives can be saved for posterity: be sure to take advantage of that.

And remember: if it wasn’t recorded, it didn’t happen.  That’s the drawback of having video recorders everywhere; it’s much harder to convince people that something occurred when there’s no footage available.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Look, I am sure that he means well.

That’s a reference to Ms. Streisand’s classic mistake of using a cool-sounding Shakespeare ‘quote’ that she apparently found on the Internet without checking it to see whether it was, in fact, correct. Which it wasn’t; and that particular example is probably a major reason why Ms. Streisand has done us all the favor of not airing out her political opinions lately. Personally, I’m grateful.

But I digress.

At any rate, President Obama, while making what was apparently a rather lackluster rally speech* for his health care debacle, used this ‘Lincoln’ quote:

I have the great pleasure of having a really nice library at the White House. And I was tooling through some of the writings of some previous Presidents and I came upon this quote by Abraham Lincoln: “I am not bound to win, but I’m bound to be true. I’m not bound to succeed, but I’m bound to live up to what light I have.”

…which, as NRO Corner notes, is actually listed here as being incorrect.

Of course, this should be easy to check: all the President has to do is tell us what book he got it out of. Although I should note that Brainy Quote won’t count…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState. (more…)

The President can offer an Executive Order, but the groups that are watching – and scoring – the health care debacle on life issues are going to assume that such an offer is meaningless*.

You know what would be handy for the President right now? A reputation for doing what he said that he was going to do, come Hell, high water, or a recalcitrant Congress*. Shame that the President decided that such a thing was beneath his dignity, huh?

Moe Lane

*You know. Like George W Bush had.

Here, meet one.

“All this talk about rules. When the deal goes down, we make ‘em up as we go along.”

Rep. Alcee Hastings was the sixth federal judge in American history to be impeached from office (bribery and perjury). The voters of FL-23 may have elected him afterward, but it was the Democratic party leadership that let him join the Rules Committee. And it’s the American electorate who gets to decide whether he can stay the Chair of its Legislative/Budget Process sub-committee.

So. Your call.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Smitty over at the Other McCain is covering it; see also Michelle Malkin.  Glenn Reynolds has an unconfirmed report of 30K so far, which if true should frighten Democrats generally, as this is a pickup protest.  Glenn also has pictures of the event, which will no doubt start the usual discussion about how many right-of-center people showed up to protest, in the hopes that it will distract people from the more interesting point that right-of-center people are now increasingly likely to show up to protest…

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, it’d be great if I was there.  It’d also be great if I had a budget.  Not a complaint, just an observation; as Dan noted in his excellent post, it’s the other side that gets the funding.  So it goes.

Crossposted to RedState.

…over what the Hell his party is doing with regard to the health care debacle:

“We’re not going to deem the Senate bill passed.We’re going to pass the Senate bill. We’re going to pass it by a vote in the House.”

I am given to understand that the response was, ah, polite disbelief.

…if you’re following the health care debacle, you don’t need a link to know that the pro-choice wing-and-three-quarters of the Democratic party is screaming bloody murder about Pelosi’s latest reversal; and if you’re not, you want me to SHUT UP ABOUT HEALTH CARE.

Fine. Here’s a video of what was possibly the only pet hippo in existence.

If the hippo ended up eating its human owners, don’t tell me.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I know that hippos are herbivores.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Explicitly.  From a Thursday memo on the subject:

We cannot emphasize enough: do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of CBO scores and textual narrative.  Instead, focus only on the deficit reductions and number of Americans covered.

Emphasis theirs, not mine.  Also:

The inclusion of a full SGR ['sustainable growth rate' - ML] repeal would undermine reform’s budget neutrality.  So, again, do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of CBO scores and textual narrative.  Instead, focus only on the deficit reductions and number of Americans covered.

As most health staff knows, Leadership and the White House are working with the AMA to rally physicians support for a full SGR repeal later this spring.  However, both health and communications staff should understand we do not want that policy discussion discussed at this time…

I’d ask what they were so afraid of, but I already know the answer – and so do you.

Moe Lane

PS: Obviously, there’s no need to accommodate them in their desire to avoid this issue.

Crossposted to RedState.

House Democrats want a letter?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

They need hostages. Complete with those plastic explosive necklaces from The Running Man
.

Via Hot Air Headlines – and I have to say: that feature that MSNBC has where you can cut the embed clip to suit is pretty cool.

(Who is, by the way, about halfway through the process of Learning Her Lesson):

Q. “I wonder at what point the administration will realize it wasn’t worth it—worth the discord, worth the diminution in popularity and prestige, worth the deepening of the great divide.“

A. Election Night, 2012.

Assuming that the President even runs for re-election.  I know, I know, that sounds silly: after all, the Democrats still think that they can pull out the votes on health care rationing.  But the job situation sucks, frankly; and it’s not going to stop sucking any time soon; and jobs creation is not even the next thing on the legislative horizon.  And I don’t think that the man even likes being President.  And not in that good way, either.

Well, we’ll see.

Moe Lane

The trick to this is to sing it in the standard “head slightly tilted, voice slightly off-key, smile slightly unnerving and eyes staring at somebody’s left cheek” fashion.

This is the bill that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friend.
Some people tried pushing it
Not knowing what it was
And they’ll continue pushing it
Forever just because… (more…)

Thanks to Glenn Reynolds and Megan McArdle, this is going to be one of the funniest videos you’ll watch today:

That’s Representative Dan Rostenkowski being attacked at a town-hall meeting with his constituents. Afterwards, he plaintively asked his press officer how long it would be before the media foofaraw blew over. “Let me put it this way,” the flack is said to have replied. “When you die, they will play that clip.”

Admittedly, Dan Rostenkowski didn’t lose his job then - he got caught up in the 1994 tsunami, although he was probably on the way out then anyway – but then, in 1989 they weren’t putting practical video cameras in cell phones*.  They also weren’t able to make footage showing a Congressman doing a high-speed getaway from his constituents instantly available to anybody with a decent Internet connection.  And they didn’t have the capacity to let protest groups coordinate activities nationwide.  But we have all these things now.

Enjoy your recess, Congress!

Moe Lane

*Heck, in 1989 what they considered a ‘cell phone’ looks strange and confusing to our eyes.

If this was happening in some other country, I would be laughing hysterically right now.

Taking a new position, Axelrod said the White House only objects to state-specific arrangements, such as an increase in Medicaid funding for Nebraska, ridiculed as the “Cornhusker Kickback.” That’s being cut, but provisions that could affect more than one state are OK, Axelrod said.

That means deals sought by senators from Montana and Connecticut would be fine — even though Gibbs last week singled them out as items Obama wanted removed. There was resistance, however, from two committee chairman, Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and the White House has apparently backed down.

Since it’s happening in mine, I’ll merely note that there is no reason that anybody should be surprised by this (Hot Air certainly isn’t). The President does not have a name for keeping his promises. Also: if you gave money to the Democrats in the last decade because you wanted less corruption and favor-trading in Congress… well, let’s just say that all sales are final. And you aren’t getting any of that money back any time soon.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers. Check out the new polling site Unlikely Voter, btw: not my site, but run by the guy who runs my site.

[UPDATE] I wasn’t joking about the ‘re-election money’ thing.

Here is something interesting: this paragraph (from an article begging Democratic legislators in Republican districts to sign off on health care rationing, for the greater glory of liberal urban Democrats)…

Hardened? Consistent? Solid? You must be joking. Look at the Rasmussen survey cited by Caddell and Schoen. Nine months ago, it showed likely voters supporting the Democratic health-care plan by 5-point margin. Then they opposed it by an 11-point margin. Then they favored it again by 5 points. Then they opposed it by 15 points. Then they were split. Then they opposed it by 19 points. Now the margin is back down to 11. Who knows where will it be next week?

…and this graph*:

…are coming from the same data source.

(more…)

Because you ain’t so tough.

And this ain’t 2008.

Confident Axelrod challenges GOP: ‘Make my day’

One of the president’s top advisers confidently predicted Sunday that Congress will pass healthcare reform and dared Republicans to advocate repealing it during the 2010 elections.

We ran a Republican in Massachusetts on the explicit promise that he’d do everything in his power to spoke the wheels of your party’s disaster of a health care bill – and he won in a walk.  We’ve got states like New Jersey calling for junking the current mess and starting over.  And the ‘debate’ so far consists of a lot of people trumpeting their ‘no’ votes, almost nobody bragging about their ‘yes’ votes – and nobody brave enough to admit yet that they plan to go from ‘no’ to ‘yes.’  And you still want to dance?  OK, then: let’s dance.

Davey.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

They sayeth that, in fact, by a lot.

The Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released Thursday finds 81 percent of respondents wanting changes to the health care system, while 17 percent believe the current system works well enough.

But only 22 percent say Congress should pass the current reform proposals, while 68 percent want lawmakers to start over.

That’s two-thirds of adult voters in NJ who are calling for a mulligan. What’s the breakdown for likely ones? – And that’s a question that probably keeps the people on the list below up at nights:

The list, of course, is the Democratic Congressional delegation for NJ. Payne and Holt Rothman [Oops!] are probably not too worried – they’re the only legislators on the list who had their counties carried by Corzine in the last election – and John Adler read the tea leaves a while back anyway.  The rest of them need to… think about things.

Quickly.  There’s only seven and a half months until the election.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.